HOSPITAL GRANT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 163, 26 June 1935, Page 6

HOSPITAL GRANT

MINISTER SYMPATHETIC Napier & Hastings Facilities REQUEST FOR £20,000 A deputation representative of the Hawke's Bay Hospital Board, the Hawke’s Bay County Council and the Napier and Hastings Borough Councils, secured from the Minister of Health, Sir Alexander Young, at Hastings yesterday afternoon the promise that he would reemphasise to the Treasury Department the case of the Hospital Board in its request for a grant of £20,000 to complete its services in Napier and Hastings. Sir Alexander said he was genuinely sympathetic. Mr C. 0. Morse, ehairman of the Hawke ’• Bay Hospital Board, said that all the bodies contributory to the board —the Napier and Hastings Borough Councils, and the Hawke’s Bay County Council —were supporting the board’s reqaest that £20,000 should be budgetted for in this year’s estimates, as a grant to the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board. The board felt justified in making this request. It was already committed to loans totalling £66,500 from rehabilitation funds to restore its hospital services after the earthquake. This £20,000 was needed to complete the hospital services in Hawke’s Bay, including £4OOO for an ante-natal clinic, enlarging the operating theatre block and out-patients and social welfare block at Hastings, and the re-establish-ment of an isolation block at Napier. After the commitments for the special block, which was started on Monday, there would be a small sum in hand; nevertheless the board was justified in making this request. The department had been saved a considerable sum by way of money contributed throughout New Zealand for gift purposes after the earthquake. Patients sent to other hospital boards at the time of the earthquake had been paid for out of these rehabilitation funds. These patients cost approximately £lB,OOO. Had it not been for those funds contributed by the people of the Dominion, £9OOO or £lO,OOO would have had to be contributed by the department. But for the earthquake the board probably would have been out of debt by 1936. Mr Morse said he was sure that everybody in New Zealand would support the request for this grant of £20,000. He hoped the Minister would give his earnest consideration to its inclusion in the estimates for the coming year. Mr C. Duff, a member of the board, tendered his support, and said the board felt it was justified in asking for special consideration for this special case.

COUNTY HOSPITAL BATE. Mr C. Lassen, as a representative of the County Council, said that the council was the largest contributor, and if the sum had to be paid out by way of levies and subsidies, the county ratepayers, who were carrying all they possibly could, were likely to be badly hit. As it was, the county hospital rate was the highest of any in the North Island, for it worked out at £1 7/6 for each £lOOO of property value. Dr H. M. Wilson said he considered that the board had done remarkably well in the circumstances. As an instance of the need for the completion of hospital equipment in Hawke’s Bay, he said that at the out-patients ’ department at Hastings, many of the patients had to wait sitting on the floor. Mr G. A. Maddison, representative of the Hastings Borough Council, said the council was very concerned at what appeared on the horizon as an increased rating, because in another year or so they would be called upon to pay rates to produce interest on all money borrowed to restore hospital services in Hawke’s Bay. He considered the board was particularly modest in asking for a grant of £20,000, and he believed the rest of New Zealand would gladly consent to the cancellation of the whole of the £66,500 which had been borrowed to restore those services. He recalled the time in the House of Representatives when Mr Forbes said that generous treatment should be received by earthquake sufferers. Mr Maddison said he considered that the hospital services should be restored free, and he did not think the cancellation of these loans would actually affect the Consolidated Fund. Municipalites in this district were faced with the payment of interest on loans granted for the restoration of municipal services, on top of which they would be confronted with interest on hospital loans. Sir Alexander Young pointed out that the Government actually did pay half of the £66,500 by way of subsidy.

BURDEN ON WOOL-GROWERS. Mr H. M. Campbell, M.P., concurred with the previous speakers, and pointed out the burden which wool-growers were called upon to bear with their having to pay a two-thirds proportion of the interest on these hospital loans. In view of Mr Forbes’s and Mr Coates’s statements in Parliament as to the generous treatment which earthquake sufferers should receive, he considered that something should be done to relieve the present position. If some concession were granted it would halp the struggling district to recover more quickly. Mr A. E. Jull, M.P., also supported the request, and said that it was not too much to ask. So far as the cancellation of the half of £66,500 loans went, he hoped it would be considered in the spirit in which the statements were made in the House four years ago. Mr W. Tucker, another county representative, said the county whole-heart-edly supported the Hospital Board in its endeavour to secure a grant of £20,000, and Mr C. D. Cox, representative of the Napier Borough Council, said his council was very sympathetic, and hoped the board’s representations would be earnestly considered. Mr Morse said that out of £1,250,000 rehabilitation money s, already £30,000 had been granted to private individuals. Therefore, as a charitable iastitulion,

the hospital was within its rights to ask for a grant of £20,000 to complete its services. The Minister expressed his genuine sympathy. He said that as the result of a recent deputation to the acting-Rriuie Minister, the Hon. Sir Alfred Ransom, the matter had been submitted to the Treasury, and he awaited a report from that department. He would be pleased to re-emphasise the case on behalf ot [he board.